Reducing deep stomach fat can improve your brain function, Israeli scientists find |
In a groundbreaking study, researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, along with scientists from Leipzig University and Harvard University, have found that inner abdominal fat, rather than general obesity, can lead to brain atrophy and cognitive decline.
The peer-reviewed findings represent the largest and longest MRI-based study to date on the link between belly fat and the brain.
The study focuses on ectopic adipose tissue, the kind of body fat that wraps around organs in the stomach. This is different from subcutaneous fat, the kind that can be pinched under the skin.
“We now understand that abdominal visceral fat is very dangerous,” Dr. Dafna Pachter, the lead author of the study, told The Times of Israel in a video call. She said this kind of fat is more crucial to the brain’s health than body mass index or body weight.
Dr. Iris Shai, a Ben-Gurion University professor, adjunct professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, and dean of the School of Sustainability at Reichman University, led the research, which was recently published in Nature Communications.
Pachter said the study followed 533 middle-aged and older adults for five to 16 years as they ate a Mediterranean-style diet rich in vegetables, fruit, fish, and chicken, with no red meat.
The participants also consumed green tea, walnuts, and a tiny marine plant called Mankai, or duckweed.
“The research showed that a reduction in visceral fat, even for 18 months, could decrease brain atrophy five and 10 years later,” Pachter said, regardless of how much weight the participants lost.
She also emphasized that since MRI tests are not “routinely available,” measuring waist........